In one example, highlighted by the watchdog, a teacher guide designed to assist staff instructing children aged 12 to 13 describes Israelis “bashing children’s heads in front of their mothers” and mutilating women for jewellery, while instructing students to visually re-create the event with drawings.
Another Arabic guide for teaching children aged 11 to 12 states, “The Zionists are the terrorists of the modern age and they are fated to disappear”.
The curriculum also extols the value of martyrdom and jihad. Material created for 17 and 18-year-olds describes violent Jihad as the “highest peak of Islam”, rewarded by Allah with “paradise”.
Another resource asks students to consider the question: “In what circumstances does jihad for the sake of Allah, for the liberation of Palestine, become a personal obligation for every Muslim?”
Meanwhile, an activity for six to seven-year-olds teaches the word šahīd, or martyr, as one of their first spelling terms, and a grade two resource (seven- to eight-year-olds) presents a poem that urges pupils to “give [their] lives to the revolution” and carry the “flame of the revolution” towards Al-Aqsa Mosque.
![A grade two language book includes a poem which states: "We gave our spirits to the Revolution [tawrah]
Our grandfathers built houses/for us in our free land
I am a lion cub, I am a flower/we carried the flame of the Revolution To Haifa, to Jaffa/ to Al-Aqsa, to [the Dome of] the Rock." (Impact-se)](https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/alias/contentid/1nad5jzrvjd6kjt71g0/Screenshot%202025-11-19%20at%2010.26.39.png?f=3x2&w=732&q=0.6)
A grade two language book includes a poem which states: "We gave our spirits to the Revolution [tawrah] Our grandfathers built houses/for us in our free land I am a lion cub, I am a flower/we carried the flame of the Revolution To Haifa, to Jaffa/ to Al-Aqsa, to [the Dome of] the Rock." (Impact-se)[Missing Credit]
A grade five textbook teaches 10–12-year-olds reading comprehension by praising Dalal Al-Mughrabi, a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) who led the 1978 massacre of 38 Israelis, including 13 children. It describes her “heroism” and how the massacre made her memory “immortal” in the “hearts and minds” of Palestinians.
A colouring-in page used in Islamic education for ten-year-olds includes an image of a Palestinian flag seemingly dripping in blood, against the backdrop of the Dome of the Rock and placed next to a map of Palestine that does not show Israel. Children are told to “protect” the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that one day, the Palestinian flag will be raised over Jerusalem.
A textbook created for 17- and 18-year-olds includes a poem that urges students to “return” to Israeli cities “with a weapon in your hand”.
An Islamic Education book for grade five (Impact-se)[Missing Credit]
Meanwhile, an Arabic language textbook for grade eight (12-14 years) teaches reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary through a text that describes suicide bombers wearing “explosive belts”, Palestinians’ daggers slashing Israelis’ throats, and tells students “to not forget” the image of burned Israelis, accompanied by a graphic illustration.
Israel is not the only country demonised in the school resources. America is portrayed as an imperialistic power. One history lesson on “global hegemony” is accompanied by a cartoon image of an American flag gripping the earth, its red stripes wrapped around the planet.
A history studies textbook for grade 12 (Impact-se)[Missing Credit]
The violent rhetoric is not limited to religion or language classes. A maths lesson for eight-year-olds teaches counting through the number of dead Palestinian martyrs, while a biology lesson for 16-year-olds includes a diagram showing a 12-year-old boy shot during conflict, used to explain effects on the bladder and nervous system.
A science book for 12- to 13-year-olds informs students that a solution of water and salt plays a key role in Palestinian prisoners’ “battle of empty guts,” a reference to hunger strikes in Israeli jails.
Another science book shows 11- to 12-year-olds a photo of damage to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, blaming the cracks on the “excavation and tunnels, which the Israeli Occupation made”.
A maths textbook for grade 11 pupils (16-17 years old) introduces a unit on statistics and probability with an illustration of Palestinian refugees walking towards a map of Israel and the West Bank, and asks children a question: “What do you expect the number of refugees who keep the keys of return in Palestinian [refugee] camps in Lebanon to be?”
Meanwhile, some of the books analysed by the watchdog show women as inferior to men and unfit for leadership or decision-making roles. Some religious materials blame women for moral decline and discourage their participation in public life.
An Arabic textbook for grade eight teaches reading comprehension through a violent story exalting the feats of Palestinian militants in the 1968 Battle of Karameh. The Palestinian and Arab fighters are described as having their "daggers land on the necks of the Enemy soldiers," with Israel being identified as "the Enemy." The Palestinian suicide fighters (fedayeen) use "explosive belts" to "turn their bodies into fire burning the Zionist tank," the resource states. (Impact-se)[Missing Credit]
In one book for Islamic education for children aged 15-16, a lesson template about relations between men and women rejects equality between the two sexes in favour of “justice”.
The hard copies and digital versions of textbooks analysed by Impact-se are used across schools in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, including Unrwa schools, and are taught to over 1.3 million students.
Since the July 2024 agreement, the EU has disbursed more than €500 million to the PA; yet, the textbooks represent “no attempt to expunge problematic content,” according to Impact-se.
Impact-se CEO, Marcus Sheff, said the report exposed “a stark and disturbing reality.”
He said the report demonstrated “virulent antisemitism, the glorification of jihad and incitement to violence remain deeply embedded across all grades of Palestinian Authority textbooks.
“The PA signed a formal agreement with the European Union—its largest funder—to remove this hate-filled content, a demand also made by the United States, which has consequently sanctioned PA officials.
“The obvious conclusion of this report is that barring long-overdue, deep and sustained intervention by the international community, then systematic indoctrination of Palestinians via extremist education is here to stay. There is no halt in sight to what is clearly a strategy of indoctrination through extremist education,” Sheff said.
